Roy Glenn - MOB

“Yeah, I know.” Ronnie laughed. “Now I got to be on a budget. Couldn’t get my after the job freak on the way I like to. Got to make this money last until the next job.”

“I been thinkin’ about that too.”

“You got something planned out already?”

“No. I been thinkin’ about gettin’ out,” Travis said.

“Hold up. You ain’t thinkin about quittin’ because I fucked up, are you?”

“It’s not just that, Ron. It’s a lot deeper than that. Maybe I’m slippin’. I should have had a contingency plan in place if anything went wrong while we were in the store. It wasn’t the tight timeline, it was my failure to plan for the manager having a weapon and include that in the timeline.”

“You ain’t still blamin’ yourself for that, are you? I’m tellin’ you the shit was my fault, plain and simple.”

“That and my lack of contingency planning once the alarm was triggered.”

“That shit went without saying. Get the shit as quick as we can and get the fuck out of there. It don’t get no clearer than that. We didn’t need no contingency plan for that.”

“Yes, Ronnie, we did. We need to have a plan in place to counter anything that could possibly happen.”

“Okay, I can see where you’re right about that. So what’s up, Travis? You in or out?”

“I’m still down. I don’t have enough money to retire. All I’m sayin is that I thought about it, and we-and that definitely includes my planning-need to tighten up.”

“Tighten up on what?” Jackie asked as she came in the house.

“Nothing, Jackie,” Travis said quickly, and Ronnie gave him a look.

“What’s up, Travis? I hope you got meat, ’cause the grill is hummin’.”

“It’s all in the kitchen waiting for you, Jackie,” Travis said.

“Travis talkin’ about quittin’, Jackie,” Ronnie said with an attitude.

“What?”

“That we need to tighten up,” Ronnie said, looking very seriously at Travis. It was obvious that he was angry and bitter about what he had just heard. “More to the point, I need to tighten up.”

“No, both y’all niggas need to tighten up. Ronnie, you need to stop your bullshit and stick to the plan. No deviation, just do what the plan calls for,” Jackie said. “Travis, you need to do a much better job at planning for contingencies. You got to have plan, and a contingency plan for that plan. And then you need contingency plan for that plan, just in case any one of us fucks it all up,” she said as she began to season the steaks.

Ronnie and Travis sat across from one another at the dining room table and stared. Other than the sound that Jackie was making in the kitchen, silence and tension filled the room. Ronnie extended his hand. Travis reached out and grabbed it. “You know, it’s funny, Travis. Jackie said exactly what you did, but I was mad at you for sayin’ it. All you were tryin’ to say is that we both need to tighten up, and I took it like you were just comin’ down on me. I’m sorry, man. I don’t know where my head was. Probably been smokin’ too many blunts. But I got it in check, Travis.”

“Good,” Jackie yelled from the kitchen. “Glad y’all two got that settled.”

Ronnie picked up one of the blunts he had rolled and lit it. He took a drag and handed it to Travis. “Let no man break up what we built,” Ronnie said.

So now it was party time. They usually invited six women to the party. Three would be dancers, and the other three would be, for lack of a better word, regular women. The dancers were there to set the tone for the evening and get things started. They usually left around 11 o’clock to make it to the club in time to make money. The other women were invited to close out the evening.

This night was a little different. Since Travis had been out of town, he didn’t invite anybody. He did tell Jackie to make sure Mystique was there, and Ronnie said in his message that she would be, but she was a no-show.

By the time 10 o’clock rolled around, the party had gone to another level. Everybody was having a good time; everybody but Travis, who try as he may, couldn’t seem to get involved. And when he did, it wouldn’t hold his attention for very long. No matter what he did, he kept thinking about the woman he met, or at least saw, at the store. He had made up his mind that somehow, some way he would find her.

By 11 o’clock, Ronnie had disappeared with two women and hadn’t resurfaced. For her part, Jackie had a little dancing orgy going on in the living room with one of the dancers who called herself Creme. The woman she invited left earlier because the action was a bit much for her. Jackie said she understood the set was a little overwhelming, but still gave the woman a sample of what she was missing before she left.

Travis had settled onto the chaise lounge and was watching boxing when the doorbell rang. He wondered who was coming to his house unannounced and uninvited. He got up to answer it, since Jackie appeared to be in no position to do so. She did, however, lift her head. “You got that, Tee?”

“Yeah, Jackie, I got this. Go back to what you were doing,” Travis replied as he made his way to the door. He looked out the peephole and couldn’t tell who it was. Whoever it was knocked loudly on the door. Reluctantly, Travis opened the door.

“Hello, Travis.” A female voice came from the shadows. As she stepped forward, Travis was surprised but not shocked to see that it was Mystique.

“Hello, Mystique. Come on in,” Travis said.

Mystique stepped inside dressed in a black leather jumpsuit and black boots. “I see I’m not too late,” she said, watching Creme wide-eyed and shaking as Jackie applied her skills.

“Not really. As far as I’m concerned, you’re just in time. Make yourself comfortable.”

“I’ve heard a lot about these parties of yours, Mr. Travis Burns. I was starting to wonder what you had to do to get an invite to one these things.”

“Well, it helps if I know you exist, which I didn’t know about you until the other night,” Travis said as he reclaimed his spot on the chaise and resumed watching the fight. Once Jackie and Creme acknowledged Mystique’s presence, they too made a quick departure, leaving Travis alone with Mystique.

“Do you want me to dance for you, Travis?” Mystique asked as she took off her boots and pulled down the zipper of her jumpsuit.

“You can if you want to,” Travis answered and glanced in her direction.

“You don’t seem like you’re in a very good mood. Maybe I should go.”

“No!” Travis said quickly and much louder than he needed to. “Please, I want you to stay. I didn’t mean to be rude.” He smiled. “I know you want my undivided attention.”

Mystique laughed too. “I did say that, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did. And I’m sorry if I seem a little distracted. I just have a lot on my mind. But believe me, that has nothing to do with you.”

“Is it something that you can talk about?” Mystique asked and sat down on the chaise next to Travis.

“No, it’s nothing I can talk about, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t just sit here for a while and talk about other things,” Travis said.

“That would be nice,” Mystique said. “Nobody ever wants to just talk to me. It’s always dance, dance, dance.”

So they talked. Every now and then a song would come on that Mystique liked and she would get up and dance for him. For the most part, she seemed content just to sit and talk. Mystique was beginning to like Travis, not as a client or someone she just danced for, but as a person. Travis was enjoying talking to her, too, but he had already made up his mind that there was no future in a relationship with a dancer. Still, he was always polite. Besides, Mystique was fine as hell, could dance her ass off, and she was a whole lot more intelligent than he thought she would be. Their conversation jumped from one subject to the other while the two shared drinks, blunts, and old stories. And they laughed; they laughed like little children playing in the park. Each was really starting to dig the other’s vibe.